Don't Leave Me
by Hikaru Morinaga
Summary: [Post Fuuin] Roy did not expect Lilina to drag him to see this, this being seeing someone in their last few moments of life. [deathfic] Implied RoyxLilina


**Don't Leave Me**

_**Death is only the beginning of life**_.

Roy didn't understand why Lilina grabbed his hand and led him out of his chambers and down two corridors. He didn't understand why they had stopped at a solid oak door, or why Marcus was in front of it conversing with a healer. All Roy could make out was "...this is the end," when Lilina squeezed Roy's shoulder.  
Roy knew something wasn't right, and he felt sick to his stomach.  
The healer bowed and left, leaving Marcus alone with Roy and Lilina.  
"Your father wishes to speak with you," Marcus said, shifting uncomfortably. Roy could tell Marcus had been crying, though he didn't know the reason why. This only made Roy feel worse.  
"Do you want me to go with you?" Lilina asked, clutching his hand. He shook his head, kissed her hand, and said, "I'll see him alone." Marcus moved aside and gave the receding boy's back a look that merely said, "I'm so sorry".

It was dark in his father's room, the only light was the small lamp by his bed, which cast ghostly shadows on the walls. It was so quiet, Roy worried that there was nothing but death in the room, but as he approached his father's bed, he realised his father wasn't dead.  
The fact was that Eliwood was on the verge of death.  
"...Roy..."  
The duke almost didn't catch his father's voice, raspy and strained. Roy walked quickly to the bed and he sat down next to his father, concerned.  
"You sent for me?" Roy looked at his father and realised how old he looked just then: the graying hair, the wrinkled face. It was hard to believe his father was only in his early forties. Eliwood coughed and cleared his throat before speaking again.  
"...I'm sorry, Roy." The eighteen year old took his father's hand in his and squeezed it gently.  
"Sorry for what, Father?"

His father coughed again.  
"...I don't have much time to tell you...to tell you everything. I already told Marcus to--" he paused to cough once more, "--to finish where I left off in case I...I don't finish." Eliwood took a deep breath.  
"First of all...you're...you're not a full blooded Pheraean."  
Roy found his voice after swallowing the lump that had formed in its place.  
"I know. Marcus told me about me being half Dragon."  
Eliwood sighed.  
"No questions?"  
Roy shook his head.  
"All right. Second of all...it-it pains me to tell you this but..." Eliwood blinked tears away. "I'm sorry I won't see the day you and Lilina get married."

_Oh god no_. _Not this_, Roy thought, and tried not to think about it.  
"W-What are you talking about?" the eighteen year old asked, voice cracking. "Of course you will! The healers said you would be well--"  
"Roy."  
Roy promptly shut his mouth.  
"My condition has worsened. I...I do not have much time left." Tears slid down Roy's face.  
"What you're saying can't be true," Roy said, denying his father was dying. "Think of all the things you'll miss! You'll miss my wedding! You _promised_ me you would live to see it, to walk Lilina down the aisle in Lord Hector's place...you _swore_!" Roy didn't bother to hide the fact that he was crying anymore.  
"I know..." Eliwood said, his voice quiet. "...I won't see my grandchildren, either. I was hoping to live to see at least one." Roy sniffled.  
"You're going to leave me like Mother left us. You're all I have left!"

Eliwood sat up and coughed again.  
"I know, Roy. I know. And I don't want to die either. But you knew I wouldn't live forever."  
"...You...you won't see my wedding... You won't be there for me!"  
Roy was hysterical by this time, pounding the bed with his fist and clenching at the sheets.  
"You can't leave me."  
Eliwood wrapped his arms around his son and let him cry.  
"I won't be leaving you. I'll be in your heart, always. And I'll be watching over you from Heaven." Eliwood sat back and stroked his son's hair.  
"You can't leave me..."

Eliwood felt a stabbing pain in his chest, and saw his vision getting darker.  
"Roy...I have one last thing to tell you."  
"W-What?"  
Eliwood placed a hand on his son's face and stroked his cheek with a thumb. Roy placed his hand over his father's.  
"I love you."  
"I-I love you, too, Dad."  
Roy sat there and sobbed as his father's hand fell from his face.

Lord Eliwood Elbert Pherae, age forty, was dead.

Marcus and Lilina heard the sobs through the door and looked at each other.  
"S-Should I...?" the bluenette asked, choking back tears.  
Marcus nodded and opened the door for her. She stepped into the room and saw Roy's head on Eliwood's chest, sobbing.  
"R-Roy?"  
"He can't be," Roy said, denying it. His voice was high pitched and cracking. "He can't be dead. This is all some sick nightmare." The red head got up and ran out of the room to his chambers, distraught. Lilina called after him and followed him, entering the room before he slammed the door in her face.  
"Roy..." Lilina knelt beside the boy, who was on the floor, head in his hands, sobbing. His shoulders shook with each sob, and Roy's face was slightly red. The girl wrapped her arms around Roy and embraced him tightly, saying, "Cry on me." The boy took her up on her offer, hugging her tightly, as he cried on her shoulder.

"He's...he's _dead_," Roy said in between the sobbing and the sniffling, his voice muffled by Lilina's neck. She rubbed his back comforting, knowing exactly how he felt.  
_He'll never get over this_, she thought. You get over the initial shock, but the pain would forever remain. After all, Lilina still cries at night sometimes over her father, who'd been dead for three years.  
"Ssshh," Lilina said, rubbing his back and stroking his hair, "don't speak. It will just make it worse."  
"But he's _dead_. He's never coming back. He...he won't see us...get married or..."  
Lilina was crying quietly, hugging Roy tighter.  
"You'll get through this. I know you will."  
"No I won't."  
"Yes you will. I'll be right there with you."

They stayed there, on Roy's floor, crying into the night, until Roy was asleep. Lilina promised that she would never leave his side, and watched him sleep.


End file.
